theatlantic:

A Visual History of Manhattan’s Grid

In the early 19th century most of the 96,000 or so residents of New York City were packed into homes near Manhattan’s southern tip. The island’s principle artery of transportation was not majestic Broadway or sleek Fifth Avenue but a winding dirt route known as the Boston Post Road. The area above what’s now Canal Street was divided into large green estates, and someone describing the environment on Manhattan as a whole would have been more likely to use the word bucolic than congested. See more maps at The Atlantic Cities